Applecross 2024 Release

The 2024 Applecross Chardonnay is sourced from St. Andrews in the Yarra Valley. Made with P58 clone fruit that was planted in 1984, it was naturally fermented and matured in French oak puncheons. Aromatically, the wine leads with white peach and ripe lime flesh, green apple, crushed shells and pressed linen. On the palate, it is pure, with gorgeous clarity and precision. There are notes of crushed nuts and almond meal through the finish pepper it with layers of textural grip and complexity. This is a beautiful wine. (95) ERIN LARKIN, Wine Advocate

As you would expect from this fella the Chard is excellent. All the elements are nicely positioned, fleshy, flavoursome fruit is the centrepiece and the winemaking sits alongside offering support and some savoury, smoky kind of detail. There seems to be a theme, with these top producers, in 24, one of purity/clarity of fruit. This highlights that perfectly. Its great, you would expect so from Bicknell. ROSCOE

The 2024 Applecross Pinot Noir is from a massal selection of clonal material planted between 1976 and 1998 at St. Andrews in the Yarra Valley. It was fermented with whole berries/whole bunches, and the élevage was in French oak barrels. This wine, a few months ahead of its market release currently, is so bright and perfumed. Rose, pistachio, graphite/petrichor, dry spice and tapenade coalesce on the palate in a rush. Pure, tightly wound and eminently focused, this is a gorgeous wine. The whole-bunch character rides high in the wine, but far from finding it distracting, I find myself attracted to it. This is super good and comes warmly recommended. (95+) ERIN LARKIN, Wine Advocate

A lovely mid weight, ripe, sumptuous style of Pinot. Aromatically alluring, with plenty of fruit to engage you along with the array of spice and mulch like aromas. Once it hits your mouth it changes a gear and hits with some snap to the feel and the phenolics make themselves known, they are most definitely present here, but I like the feel of them and they will hold this thing in good stead for a decade or so in your cellar. Classy is the word I would use for this. ROSCOE

The 2024 Lance Close Planted Pinot Noir hails from the Lance vineyard in St. Andrews in the Yarra Valley. MV6 clone was closely planted to 8,300 vines per hectare in 1989. On the nose, the oak is more evident here than in the Applecross Pinot Noir from the same vintage, yet the fruit here wears it with ease, rising up above it on the palate. Profoundly pretty, pure and elegant, this is a wine of ethereal grace and yet power. I like it so much, for different reasons than the Applecross-a wine for each mood. This is awesome. (95) ERIN LARKIN, Wine Advocate

That's a different animal. The seductive and alluring aromas of the first are here too, in a different guise. But that sensation carries across the even, cool, pleasantly sappy frame. It's nicely formed, pretty, seductive and expertly manicured. It wont hit you right out of the gate, it needs a little air, some patience, a big glass or some time in the cellar to unfurl and let some of that old vine depth flow freely. When it does it should be spot on the money. This is exciting. ROSCOE